Bleeding Purple
by Rosie2009
Summary: When Mal has a nightmare that is worse than usual, Evie comforts her. The next day, Mal makes a change that shocks Evie to the very core. Tooth-rotting sisterly fluff and a hint of Bal if you seriously squint. I mean like make the cracks between your bottom and top eyelids as thin as the Evil Queen likes to dream of her waistline being.


Evie opened her eyes and was immediately greeted with the blackness of the night. However, as her other senses further awoken, she heard quiet crying in the other bed nearby. Evie immediately came into alert consciousness and she turned to face Mal's bed as she threw off the blankets.

The moonlight illuminated a most heartbreaking sight- Mal was curled in upon herself, her head bowed and her arms folded over her midsection in a self-protective gesture as she mostly silently sobbed.

Evie took several quick strides over to Mal's bed and she slid behind the other girl carefully. She then wrapped her arms around Mal's middle, pulling the purple-haired girl against her body.

"Come here," Evie murmured to the back of Mal's head as she tugged gently. After a moment, Evie felt Mal shift backwards so that she was in the slightly older girl's lap. Mal subtly turned so that the side of her head was under Evie's chin and her face was nestled in the soft fabric of Evie's gown. Evie moved her arms so that she was stroking Mal's back.

The bluenette pulled her close, moving her legs so that they were under Mal's knees and Mal could lean into her more effectively. Mal wasted no time in resting her whole weight into Evie's body.

"Please don't let them hurt me," Mal whispered, and Evie felt her heart break as she wondered what Mal had been dreaming about.

"I won't let anyone touch you. Nothing will happen to you, I promise," Evie solemnly vowed. Evie just calmly and soothingly rubbed Mal's back in lazy circles, attempting to take the other girl's mind off of whatever she had dreamed.

After a little while, Mal finally moved her arms away from herself in favor of wrapping them around Evie.

"There you go, angel. It's okay. It's going to be fine," Evie reassured comfortingly.

She felt a shudder go down Mal's body and Evie knew that the girl must have been going over the nightmare in her head. After all, Mal had detailed the process of her overcoming her awful dreams once or twice to Evie. The bluenette believed that it made the faerie feel better to explain it.

After several more shivers, Mal's body finally went still. But she still was frighteningly tense, which left Evie with a nervousness in the pit of her stomach.

"Do you feel better?" Evie hesitantly questioned. Mal didn't say anything in reply for a few moments.

"Sometimes my method doesn't work," Mal pitifully told her before Evie felt a new wave of fresh tears begin to wet her nightgown.

"I know… I know," Evie murmured in the other girl's ear as she moved one arm up so she could run her fingers through Mal's beautifully purple tresses.

Evie sat there with her for another hour, tracing I-love-you on Mal's thinly covered back over and over simply because she knew it made the other girl feel so much better for Evie to express her affection toward her.

Mal was a very sensitive person, even if she didn't always act like it on the outside. She loved Evie's open showering of sisterly affection and attention, even if she liked to blow it off most of the time when in front of other people. When it was just Mal and Evie in their dorms, Mal would sometimes just flop down next to Evie reading on her bed and keep aggravating her until Evie finally would hug her close and read the book to her.

Evie loved Mal so much, which was why it pained her so greatly to see her having these nightmares even after Cotillion and Mal's restoration of faith in Ben's love for her as well as her love for him. Evie couldn't help but feel the same sharp pain that Mal endured during her nightmares. It killed her to see her sister like this.

"Don't worry, M. Tomorrow's another day," Evie whispered to Mal's sleeping form. Surely things would be better by the next day.

…

Evie entered her and Mal's dorm room carefreely, placing her bag on the table and plopping down in her chair at her vanity so she could touch up her lipstick before she and Mal went to the new clothing shop in town. She wasn't buying clothes from them or anything like that, but rather she was going to scope out the new competition and see if she could take away any ideas for her business. They had been planning this for several days and today was the soonest time that they could go together.

She suddenly heard a rustle in the bathroom, and she furrowed her brow for a moment before she realized that it must have been Mal. After all, the door was unlocked and Mal was the only one besides herself that had a key. It was a little strange for it to be Mal, however, because the girl was supposed to meet her at the front of the school.

"Hey, M," Evie called out in greeting, so that Mal wouldn't freak out when she realized someone was unexpectedly in the dorm with her.

Evie heard a muffled reply that was definitely her best friend, but she couldn't make out precisely what Mal had said. She stopped for a moment to listen closer, but to her mild dismay, Mal didn't say anything else. So Evie just continued on with her work on her makeup job.

Evie certainly hoped that today Mal would be feeling better. She hadn't had a chance to see Mal at all that day because as usual, the faerie had woken up before her.

When Mal finally emerged from the bathroom, Evie was in the middle of applying her mascara. As she shifted her gaze so that she could look at her friend as she put it on, her jaw immediately dropped in pure shock and she accidentally poked herself in the eye with the wand. Evie yelped in pain, squinting that eye shut as she resorted to gaping at Mal with her uninjured one.

All of Mal's formerly beautifully gorgeous long locks of aubergine were completely gone, and in their stead was a hideously washed out shade of slightly yellowed white. Her currently open eye travelled down the long expanse of repulsiveness until she finally saw tips of Mal's infamous color. It was like her hair bled all of its color away. She never thought that Mal would dare dye her hair in this washed-out color again.

"What happened to your hair?" The words fell out in a stream before she could control her tongue properly. Mal raised an eyebrow at her, that signature sassiness evident, but Evie could sense the nervousness and insecurity pouring off of the faerie in waves.

"I changed the color again. The blonde's not so bad," Mal bluntly replied, heading over to her closet with her back to the bluenette. Evie hesitantly opened her other eye so that she could get a better look.

It was worse than Evie thought now that she could see it with both eyes and with even more clarity. She quickly closed her mascara container and she stood up slowly, approaching her best friend.

When she was just behind the other girl, Evie took the purple tips in her hand, once again mourning the almost complete loss of Mal's originally striking hair. She just thought that she was suffering when Mal had turned it blonde for the first time. No, back then Evie was eager to look like an AK in any way possible, and was even supportive of Mal trying to forget the past. Now that she had gained a sort of acceptance of her heritage, it was nearly crippling to see Mal just dispose of such a major part of it.

"E? What're you doing?" Mal finally asked after several moments. Evie didn't answer at first, instead just pressing her forehead to the back of Mal's head. She almost felt like crying. Such a masterpiece of color was just carelessly thrown away. Evie could even smell the chemical stench of the bleach that was responsible.

"Nothing. Just looking at your hair," Evie answered against Mal's newly blonde locks, feeling a growing sense of nausea at the smell of the bleach.

"That closely? You need glasses or something?" Mal asked jokingly, but with a slight edge to her voice that betrayed that previously detected self-doubt.

"No… I just wanted to feel it. It looks so different," Evie told her, forcing herself to pull away and put a smile on her face so she wouldn't seem like she was grieving over Mal's new _decision_.

Mal turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow analytically, but she ultimately let the matter drop for the moment in favor of picking out an outfit.

Evie, however, was far from being over the shock and awe of this horrifying new look. Evie knew what the other girl had been thinking. Mal was assuredly wondering why in the world Evie was reacting in this way about Mal's hair when last time she had been somewhat supportive of the transformation.

"Why did you change the color?" Evie couldn't help but question, still gaping at the back of Mal's head.

"Like I told you the last time I did this, I think it'll help me blend in a little better. Purple isn't exactly the most conventional of shades," Mal explained, finally settling for a light violet dress. Evie furrowed her brow as she felt herself die a little inside. She wanted to fit in? And she was still willing to change such a signature part of herself just to do that?

"M, you don't need to change your hair color to fit in. Your personality is what makes people like you," Evie told her, every fiber in her being wishing for Mal to understand what she was saying and get rid of that gosh-awful hairstyle.

"Yeah, because a mercilessly mischievous VK that turns into a furious rage monster when provoked is what everyone wants to be seen hanging out with, right?" Mal sarcastically acknowledged and Evie noted the undertone of sadness. Evie wrapped her arms around Mal, unable to resist giving her some sort of comfort as her mind raced in an attempt to think of what or who could have possibly influenced Mal's thinking in this direction.

Mal stiffened immediately at the contact. Of course, Evie had expected this. After all, when Mal was on that teetering edge of irritation and anger, she was ten times more resistant to any kind of touch.

"_No_," Evie shortly replied, but the emphasis was enough to make Mal slightly tilt her head to the side to listen to what she had to say. "That's not what they see." Mal just sighed, and Evie knew she was going to have to step up her game.

The bluenette wordlessly took Mal's hands and pulled her over to her vanity. Evie felt Mal start to pull back as soon as she realized where Evie was taking her. Evie never faltered in her strong tugs and she soon had Mal seated in front of the mirror.

"Do you know what I see?" Evie asked her, leaning down and placing her chin on Mal's shoulder as she wrapped her arms around Mal's upper body. Mal didn't reply. In fact, Mal didn't even acknowledge that Evie had spoken besides the subtle shift of her gaze so that it met Evie's own in the mirror.

"I see a girl who was brave enough to stand up to her mother and consequentially everything that she had been taught for sixteen years. I see a girl that betrayed her upbringing in favor of a better life with three pretty cool weirdos," Evie joked, grinning widely at the other girl in her mirth. It wasn't a complete success, but Mal did smile just a little, so Evie chalked it as being a victory.

"I see a girl that has so much well-timed sarcasm that it leaves me in stitches by the time she's through talking, is really sweet if you're one of the people lucky enough to be close to her, is definitely one of the fairest of them all, and has so many people that care about her so much," Evie told her, pressing her cheek against Mal's lovingly.

"E… That's what you see. What do you think everybody else sees?" Mal moved her gaze from Evie's brown eyes to her own orbs. After a moment of staring, she closed her eyes, turning her head away from the mirror.

"They see a monster. A ticking time bomb just waiting to go off at any moment. They see Maleficent," Mal growled the last part with something between bitterness and sadness, and Evie immediately knew that someone must have called her that and hurt her feelings.

"Who told you that?" Evie solemnly questioned, her gaze determined as she shifted to kneel beside the blonde and look at the side of her face that she could currently see.

Mal's eyes shot open and Evie saw them flash toward her before Mal looked away.

"Nobody told me that," Mal stubbornly answered, but Evie knew by the way that Mal wasn't meeting her eyes that there was more to the story than she let on.

"Please, M. I love you, and I want to know what's bothering you." She watched Mal shift uncomfortably at that statement and she knew that with a little more prodding, Mal would likely give in.

"It's nothing."

"If it's nothing, then why did you change your hair color again? I know how much you hate the blonde," Evie took a strand of Mal's hair, tugging gently in an attempt to get the other girl to actually look at her. When Mal finally looked at her, Evie was surprised by the sudden presence of unshed tears in Mal's eyes.

The bluenette pushed upward and quickly pulled Mal into her tight embrace, placing her hand on the back of Mal's head as she held the faerie against her. She kissed Mal's head gently, internally willing Mal not to cry because it made Evie herself want to cry.

"I've been having these intense nightmares," Mal ground out and Evie could hear her desperate attempts to keep any sign of tears out of her voice. Evie just nodded as her mind immediately flashed to the night before. Of course, last night wasn't the only time it had happened. Many occasions before that, Evie had woken up to soft sobs and she had crawled over into Mal's bed and cuddled her until she finally went back into a peaceful sleep.

"They've changed from the typical ones, though," Mal continued and Evie furrowed her brow in concern.

"They now mostly have the AKs and they're all brutally ganged up around me, constantly shouting insults and telling me how I'm not good enough to be here at this school or even have you guys." Evie immediately felt a swell of anger inside of her at the AKs, even if it was only inside of Mal's dreams that anything had happened.

"It's just gotten worse since Cotillion. I started thinking that this might be a sign about what's going to happen in real life, so I dyed my hair blonde again as a start to keep it from happening. I've memorized some of the spells from my book, so I can still use that as backup," Mal told her. Evie turned her head and kissed Mal's ear, currently the only part of her that she could reach easily.

"I promise that everyone here _loves_ you. And if they have anything at all to say otherwise, you can count on me to be right there with you the entire time and I will defend you. The same goes for the boys. We're family, Mal, and we will always be here for you," Evie emphatically whispered, squeezing a bit tighter as extra accentuation of her ultimate message.

After a few moments of silence and heavily suppressed sniffling on Mal's part, the faerie nodded.

"I believe you."

Evie knelt there holding her for a while longer, until Mal finally spoke up once again.

"Can you help me get this out of my hair?" Mal asked her. "I don't know how, and plus, it'd make it easier if someone else could reach the back of my head. It took me forever to get this color in fully." Evie pulled away with a slight chuckle and a sweet smile.

"Of course I will."

…

Mal never dyed her hair that awful shade of blonde again. However, when she started adding more blue in her hair, Evie couldn't help but wonder what in the world was going through her mind.

So when she finally questioned Mal's choice, she received quite possibly the most enormous honor ever bestowed upon her in her entire life.

"I just wanted a little bit of color that reminded me of my hero," Mal replied with one of her rare genuine and sweet smiles that she reserved especially for a very select few people.

And that new blue highlighting mixed with her sister's purple hair was one of the best colors of all in Evie's eyes. It was Mal being sweet in that totally unique way that she alone possessed.

**A/N: So here is some good ol' tooth rotting fluff for you guys. I've been doing several group stories with our favorite core four family, so I figured Mal and Evie deserved a little sister time between just the two of them. **

**My major inspiration for this fic was my noticing that Mal had more blue in her hair in her D3 look. My first thought was, "Oh, my gosh, I think she's trying to look like Evie." I watched D2 just the other day and I saw her blonde hair. So then I really got to thinking about her changing hair colors and styles and that's how this baby hatched.**

**But anyways, moving past that weird insight into my brain… I hope you all enjoyed the fanfic and I also hope you are having a fantastic day!**


End file.
